


I Know I Said I Thought I'd Die (But I Never Did)

by gilligankane



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-13
Updated: 2012-12-13
Packaged: 2017-11-21 00:18:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/591320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gilligankane/pseuds/gilligankane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Regina lifts an eyebrow, effectively closing Emma’s mouth. “There will be no more kissing. Not now. Not ever. It was a goodbye kiss and nothing more.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Know I Said I Thought I'd Die (But I Never Did)

**Author's Note:**

> Written because... why not? Post-Return to Storybrooke.
> 
> Title stolen from a Harvey Danger song.

Emma Swan is the one standing on her front steps when Regina pulls the heavy door open. Regina scowls and crosses her arms over her chest. “What can I do for you, Miss. Swan?”

Emma scratches the back of her neck idly, her other arm hanging heavy at her side. No doubt the weight of that sword she’s caring is pulling her down. “Henry wanted me to check on you.”

Regina spreads her arms wide. “Here I am. Safe and sound. Continue on with your little charade now.” She makes a shooing motion and goes to close the door.

Emma’s hand is quick to stop her. “Wait. I… Well…

“Spit it out, Miss. Swan. I have no time for games and certainly no patience.” Regina does have the time, in fact, but patience is a concept she has always had a hard time grasping. _Why wait when you can skip ahead and get whatever it is you are after_ had always been something her mother had said and it was a belief Regina carried with her through kingdom to kingdom to Storybrooke.

“I wanted to see how you were,” Emma finally says, her voice softer.

Regina feels her stomach clench uncomfortably. She knew this moment would come eventually and she had been dreading it since the news came that Snow and Emma had returned from Fairy Tale Land. The visitors they brought with them had been enough of a distraction that Regina had been left alone until the town’s curiosity had been satisfied. In truth, Regina had no desire to inspect the newcomers. She had heard, through Maleficent, all about Briar Rose and her Prince. Mulan, the warrior the townspeople speak of, sounds appealing, but Regina has no patience for that either. Everyone else, though, from Red to Granny and even the Fairies, had been fascinated and Emma had been occupied fending off questions and getting the newcomers settled.

The more time she spent with them, the less time she spent on Regina’s front porch, her voice soft and her eyes dim with a sated fire. The more time there, the less time with Regina, and Regina would vote as many times as she could for that scenario.

“I’m fine,” she says shortly.

Emma eyes her as if she doesn’t believe a word Regina is saying. She’s not lying, not really. She’s fine. She’s not good and she’s not great but she isn’t bad and those nefarious Lost Boys have stopped trying to cut down her apple tree in the middle of the night. So, she is fine. She’s been better and she’s been worse and this is neither of those times.

“I kind of got swept into that portal before we could really talk,” Emma continues.

Regina shrugs lightly. “There is not much to say, Miss. Swan.”

“But we-”

“I’m aware,” Regina says, cutting Emma off. “And while it suited me at the time, I have decided we were caught up in the moment.”

“Caught up,” Emma echoes dully.

“It should be forgotten. Chalked up to desperation.”

Emma’s jaw drops open with an audible exhale. “Desperation.”

“Are you suffering from some unseen head trauma, Miss. Swan?” Regina steps closer, just barely, eyes narrowed. “Or do you just find joy in acting stupid? Desperation. It’s the only explanation for that… That…”

“Kiss,” Emma offers, ignoring Regina’s growl. “We kissed.”

Regina closes her eyes against the sudden searing anger in her gut. It _had_ been a simple mistake, born of desperation at the thought of losing everything she had held dear; at the thought of Emma Swan disappearing into a portal and never coming back, for which there had been no reasonable explanation. At least, the first time. The second, third, four, and tenth kiss had been born of something else entirely and Emma Swan, in all her uneducated wisdom, had picked up on that well enough.

“I’d like to do it again.”

Regina’s eyes snap open. “I beg your pardon.”

Emma shrugs childishly. “I’d like to kiss you again,” she repeats simply.

Regina isn’t sure what to say. She opens her mouth and snaps it shut again before she loses her hand in this conversation. “You’re delusional,” she manages to say, choking on the words.

“It was really nice,” Emma starts.

“Really nice?” Regina repeats, voice high.

“Until you tried to hit me,” Emma amends.

“Miss. Swan-”

“Emma.”

Regina lifts an eyebrow, effectively closing Emma’s mouth. “There will be no more kissing. Not now. Not ever. It was a goodbye kiss and nothing more.” She frowns. “A Queen, evil or not, would never stoop so low as to be involved with someone of your stature.”

Yes, Emma is technically a Princess. But something tells Regina she will be ready to hand that title over willing.

Emma raises her chin into the air defiantly. _As if it doesn’t jut out far enough already,_ Regina thinks.

“Well, I’m the Savior,” she declares, the self-righteousness in her voice a genetic trait. “So, that’s stature.”

Regina resists the urge to roll her eyes but can’t stop the smirk on her face. “Please, Miss. Swan. You’re about as apt to handle a sword as your father was when he first wielded one.”

Emma deflates slightly. “Well, he got better at it, didn’t he?” she asks, sounding every inch a young boy being told his father is not the tall, brawny hero he was always imagined to be.

“Hardly,” Regina snorts. “It just forced your mother to pick up the slack.”

It’s the closest Regina will get to a compliment and Emma seems to understand that, because she nods dutifully and narrowly misses nicking Regina’s front door as she swings her sword up and over her shoulder. In her clunky boots and her torn leather jacket and jeans Regina was sure would have disintegrated by now, Emma Swan looks like a lost child, picked last on the playground. With that sword strapped across her back, she looks like she’s wearing a Halloween costume.

Regina sighs. “Come in, if you must. We can… Talk. If it is absolutely necessary.”

Emma beams and tries to get through the door but the sword hits the frame and jerks her back across the threshold. “Uh, one second.” Sheepishly, she twists her body, lifting one shoulder and dropping the other, getting through the door in a relatively clean motion. Regina follows, shaking her head.

“Honestly,” Regina admonishes. “ _This_ is our Savior.”

She wonders if the rest of Storybrooke knows just how doomed they really are.


End file.
